California: California Republican Party

Last week, six Republican legislators joined with all of the Democrats in the State Capitol to vote for the single largest state-level tax increase in the history of our nation.  I could spend a few paragraphs outlining for you why, on a policy level, this is exactly the opposite of what Californians need right now from their state government.  But I wanted to spend a little more time on the political ramifications of that decision, at least as it impacted the delegates at the California Republican Party’s Organizational Convention which, ironically, took place last weekend, in the wake of the adoption of what I now call the “Big 5/Big Taxes/Open Primary” budget deal.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today will sign the budget package that the Legislature passed early Thursday morning.

Then comes the list of line-item vetoes.

Of course, as Jim Sanders reports in today's Bee, more money woes could be in the state's future as the economy continues to falter.

"If I could tell you what revenues are going to be in May, I would not be making this call from Sacramento -- I'd be making it from Las Vegas," quipped H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger's Department of Finance.

I'd bet the under on that.

The real drama of the weekend will be at the California Republican Party's convention, which descends on Sacramento this evening.

As last night's palace intrigue makes clear, California's fate is being dictated by the Zombie Death Cult that was once known as the California Republican Party. And it is the 2/3 rule that is primarily responsible for this. Since 1996 Californians have rejected Republicans by ever-increasing numbers, with only Arnold Schwarzenegger being able to break through - and even then he had to run against his own party.

Like their federal counterparts, California Republicans have a shrinking regional base and are dominated by ideologues. No amount of redistricting can make inroads on these safe regions without even more intensive gerrymandering than what has previously been attempted.

The weekend madness in Sacramento, product of the California Republican Party and its persistent refusal to accept reality, has finally led much of what remains of the media in California to call bullshit on their obstructionism. Even high Broderists like George Skelton, who usually find a way to avoid saying it's all the Republicans' fault, today finally comes around in an excellent column that destroys the Republican notion that we can close the gap without new taxes:
To avoid raising taxes and still balance the books in Sacramento, you'd have to virtually shut down state government...

Ardent anti-taxers say the governor and Legislature should simply whack the "bloated" bureaucracy by 10%.